There’ll be plenty of bad-ass struttin’ on the big screen when “Shaft” unspools Friday, but reports leaked during filming suggest there was some mean-mother feudin’ behind the scenes as well.
That old bugbear — creative differences — plagued the New York set; star Samuel L. Jackson, director John Singleton and producer Scott Rudin all got combative.
As early as August last year, Singleton and Rudin locked horns when the director reportedly griped about the lack of African-Americans hired for the remake of the 1971 blaxploitation classic.
Page Six then revealed that Rudin and Jackson were not digging Singleton’s antics, which allegedly included acting the sex machine with young extras, showing up late, ordering daily script changes and constantly reshooting.
And “the man” himself didn’t escape censure. When a body double was hired to stand in for Jackson during a reshoot of the title sequence, sources whispered it was because the crew had tired of the star copping an attitude.
“He was arrogant and abusive to everyone on the set,” one insider said. “He would scream and rant and rave.”
Jackson and Singleton have both acknowledged there was friction, though Jackson denies being a bully. Singleton confirmed that he used a stand-in only because the star was away shooting “Caveman Valentine” in Toronto.
“John is like many young directors I’ve worked with recently,” Jackson grumbled at a recent press conference in L.A. “They’ve done five or eight films. I’ve made close to 70. I know better than they do what works for Sam Jackson.”
Both men turned and pointed the finger at Rudin as “the big problem.”
“With Scott, it always boiled down to issues of control,” Singleton said, adding that the big bone of contention was the fact that Rudin had brought in author Richard Price to rework his original screenplay.
“I’m a kid from the ghetto and I know how the African-American characters in ‘Shaft’ should speak,” Singleton said. “But [Price] wouldn’t listen to Sam or me. On such issues, Sam and I were in solidarity against Richard and Scott.”
It sounds like everyone felt they were getting the shaft.